LOTRO: Andang dang gan an dan’agan!

1 YEAR VIP GIVEAWAY!

Andang dang gone and done it again: http://pvmpandang.com/2016/03/15/1-year-vip-code-giveaway/

I keep looking for incentivisation to get playing LOTRO again. Each weekend I promise myself to get up early before the kids and wifey rise and do some quality LOTRO’ing but each weekend I sleep long and rise with my sons who simply never let me play LOTRO, they have developed from simply taking over to jump around, head off in search of water and swim to logging me off quickly and loading up Youtube or Netflix instead! So nowadays I am relegated to my mobile gaming (CoC) or the ipad (Marvel Contest of Champions) while they control the PC… My dreams of having sons to play LOTRO with fade with each passing day… By the time they become GAMERS, which I am pretty sure they will do, they will laugh at LOTRO and want to play their kinds games whatever those may be!

And I find without the satisfying meaty session of weekend LOTRO I am uninterested in grabbing a mini session (about an hour) each morning before work as I used to. I have tried and find that I log in and then wander around, lost and unfocused.

Poor Tsukuld, RK with endgame action just a fiery stone throw away… will he ever get there?

Opopa, the one legged hobbit and creative writing inspiration languishes awaiting a new set of armour, sturdies (hides east of esteldin) simply too boring to harvest…

Tsudryt, the orange captain on Landy, future acting sensation as comedia d’art and LOTRO gaming fuse.

Tsuhelm, namesake, first LOTRO character languishes in obscurity on an empty windfola, to be transferred to another server, to which, unknown.

My kin, The Family, from what I can tell, is super busy on Laurelin and I would love to get back into the action with them, Saturday morning fun with the big players coming to help are really missed. I could never fit in the weekend afternoon Family organized activities mainly due to time difference and parental activities!

A number of other factors have also aligned themselves to hinder my LOTRO gaming, the family moved back to the center of Buenos Aires, small apartment and the PC ended up becoming the center of family entertainment; more a TV than anything else. It is also located close to my wife’s smoking perch on the mini ‘balcony’ whereas before she would smoke further away from the PC, but being so close the rest of the family also gravitates to her and it is not so much her interference to my LOTRO gaming but the impossibility of playing with my son’s constant interruptions.

I have also become more engaged again at work, by choice and necessity, so less time to blog, my pain in the butt supervisor sits beside me, so that is also restrictive to creativity! My TL with whom I am on good terms is further away and more relaxed/forgiving of my creative endeavours! And working harder at work is more tiring especially when family duties await at home, kids n wifey to entertain, I cook half of the time and wash up 90% of the time, so when I am finally able to rest I am knackered…

And then the thought of a laggy LOTRO, I do hope its all fixed now after the new hardware went live!

But I am sure I will be back one day. Tedious CoC and undemanding Marvel Superhero bashing does not make this GAMER happy.

Offers to play FFIV (its FREE for 14 days) and GW were not taken up for all of the above reasons plus my wife’s computer won’t run em!

So until I have my own gaming rig and oh ever so important gaming space I will just keep trying to get back into the flow… Obviously winning a VIP helps…even writing about the chance of winning a VIP helps 🙂

Thanks Andang…for everything you do for LOTRO players…

Even reminding us ‘ex’ LOTRO players to try and come back…

Maybe I will even start blogging again…

 

LOTRO: Server Status!

So Bingo arrived and I have been focusing a lot on Opopa, my hobbit burglar on Laurelin, I have been neglecting this poor hobbit for an age… and now I have started the Adventures of Opopa fan-fiction I have ideas that require me to get him moving…so there will be more OPOPA stuff in the future which can only be a good thing…keep reading… I created an index page: https://tsuhelm.wordpress.com/the-adventures-of-opopa/

The wonder of doing an ‘e-book’ is you can change the cover from moment to moment!

Opopa will not so lonely any more…as Tsukuld will probably be moving with his kin to Laurelin due to server mergers. Or closures as some pedantic commentators persist in calling it…why not call a glass half full of lovely beer a dirty smelly glass of disgusting evil liquid…why don’t ya…? Negative trolls you are all! Tsukuld has started exploring the Eaves of Fanghorn, and as all forests should be he keeps losing his bearing, exacerbated by not spending more time there…

Who is that geezer?

Tsudryt wrapped up the Trollshaws wolf slayer deed on Landy: 14’ish wolves a day and finished 1 day earlier than predicted.

Good job Tsudryt and Harold!

Crawlers next…

My original char Tsuhelm (and his extensive support staff!) on Windfola will have to move to one of the remaining US servers… as yet I am clueless as to which I will choose…as all he does is collect Hobbit Presents at the moment there is no rush!

Tsuhelm the carefree hippy!

LOTRO: Hobbit Poppin Only!

My new gaming regime is suffering immensely, the stresses and strains of RW and family life, in fact I find my work more flexible in regards to my blogging needs than my wife and kids are to my gaming needs. Instead of my old 13.5 hrs ish of gaming a week I just had a week of about 7 hours!

So having just started to wet my toes into deeply immersive EVE Online I am left with negative playtime for LOTRO and this is a shame as I am finding out that I love both games (at least so far) and they provide different rewards.

EVE is only winning as it has a 30 day free trial period that is slowly ticking away…indeed after technical issues to begin with and RW family time I think I am halfway through the free time with only 5 days of limited gaming!

https://tsuseventhorizon.wordpress.com/

During this period I have popped into LOTRO for free hobbit presents and to say hi to kinnies…

LOTRO is obviously a game I ‘know’ and can jump straight into, whereas EVE is at the moment, and as I keep discovering, a bottomless hole of stuff to learn. The LOTRO reward is obvious and almost immediate and the EVE reward is in slow, sometimes painful, realizations and occasional ‘Eureka’ moments. After 5 days in EVE I have yet to finish the tutorial and I have been known to complain of LOTRO’s tutorial and starter area which can be blasted through within an hour at most!

I will be back in LOTRO sooner rather than later, the breath of fresh air or more appropriately the emptiness of vacuum, is reinforcing my love of LOTRO.

So Tsu will continue to boldly go where no Tsu has gone before whether it be outta space or in Middle Earth…

LOTRO: 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse leads to deconstruction while others imbue!

The best quest I have been on so far in ROHAN…Tsukuld got to join the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse and kill some mounted opponents! I suppose that is what it is like to hunt in packs when mounted! It was actually fun even though I was still no use to anyone in the saddle. I hoofed it one way fired off a mounted attack and then hoofed it another, trying to stay with the others. I was not at any moment turfed to the ground and killed so that makes a refreshing change!

Afterwards I realized that I needed to reforge some LI’s. Oh and LI points had been reset…I had been playing nearly a week and didn’t notice… I thought it was slow going yesterday! Being a lowly lv81 I do not get to imbue my LI I get to destroy it in the good old fashioned way which for me is always really nerve-wracking! Is it the right LI being deconstructed, did I remember to take off the relics…did I keep the right legacy… and then rebuild the new LI…oh more stress…not enough points! Well the final result were these rocks below:

Not that bad..Pocket Rocket II ready to go, just need a good LI title which entails  yet more grinding…oh well!

Still working on my Teslacles (electrical rocks!)… need a few more electrical legacies and will have a nice lv75 2nd age to zap foes on the move…basically to help with old slayer deeds!

 

LOTRO: BACK ON THE HORSE THAT THREW TSU

So with no more festival inanity I moved Tsukuld back to Rohan, (Thx to TALTOZ kinnie leader recommendation – basically stop wasting time TSU get to cap come and have fun with us! Most kinnies are at cap already.) bartered another piece of Counselour gear, almost complete but no more set bonuses to be earnt. Also jewelry from Rohan trader: overall a boost to will and tactical mastery…

Then back to Harwick…

BACK ON THE HORSE THAT THREW TSU

The powerful yet little war pony and ran straight into a wall…I forgot about the auto stop! That brake is useful, must move it closer to my WASD keys…maybe make it nr1! Let’s call it the WOAH key!

Tsukuld is sent out into the Wold marsh bog swamp areas to kill flies and salamanders…and a salamander raiding party… war pony and swamp…an interesting combination!

BACK ON THE HORSE THAT THREW TSU

I charge in and fire off a red skill (I must admit to not knowing what any of these skills do) it aggressive at least but then I am gone and the salamander is behind me…oh dear…I pull back hard on ‘S’ and slow to a standstill and dismount…Whoa key forgotten about again! I walk back quite a way and using normal RK rotation proceed to fry all and sundry including the raiding party! Without even a thought to getting back on my rocket powered mount. Now if it fired rockets as well…maybe homing missiles that would be cool…

BACK ON THE HORSE THAT THREW TSU

Anyway, landscape quests also encountered…more flies to be killed, nests to be found, undead to be destroyed…source of corruption to be found… Dwolung Hole cannot be entered. I mount up again and blast past all, picking up a nice cloud of mobs which plods after me, ‘Whoa’ key forgotten again… dismounting they swarm Tsukuld and nearly kill him… thankfully I am much more secure in the use of my RK ‘bubbles’ and with some clever bubble blowing am able to slowly burn off the unwanted crowd of swamp life.

BACK ON THE HORSE THAT THREW TSU

Back into Harwick, my little war pony is superfast which is a bonus. Tsukuld gets to meet the Thane of Harwick, Harding…lots of har har- he promptly kicks Tsukuld out of town!

BACK ON THE HORSE THAT THREW TSU

Now in Feldburg camp; more Questing to be done…’On Notice!’ quest to be done, which I gather requires doing nothing directly? More swamp life to be ridden down and killed…oh and a warg raiding party to be hunted and boars too. I find this warg raiding party waiting just outside camp and I don’t even try to fire a random mounted skill…Tsukuld just dismounts and blasts em all to fiery kingdom come.

BACK ON THE HORSE THAT THREW TSU

Back into the swamp…back off the horse to cook wildlife, I sense a pattern developing here…

Time for work… luckily(unluckily?) I do not have my own RW horse to go to work on so…

NO MORE … BACK ON THE HORSE THAT THREW TSU…

for today…

LOTRO: 4 Years, dressing up to celebrate!

Tsukuld getting into the festive spirit of LOTRO´s 8th Anniversary Festival!

The shoulder pads were an accident but I quite like!

Cosmetic heads are welcome to suggest a more complementary headpiece…

LOTRO: Pet Farming East of Esteldin!

I took Tsuchump my long neglected lv35 champ out for a spin, I was enjoying my still uncompleted TP grind run with Madtsu (lv23) that I fancied taking a champion higher into the later levels…maybe even into Moria! It had been some time since last play, indeed I was VIP as all trait slots are available which is the advantage he has over Madtsu…but he was sporting a 2-handed sword and was in red DPS line! Thanks to Taltoz, kin leader,  he got a nice new set of armour 🙂

I normally play my champs with 2 swords and in AoE line…indeed it is my thrill and continual motivator to try and take out as many mobs at the same time and still walk away… safe to say with that big clubbing sword the speedy AoE dynamic was somewhat off! Nakt was online from my kin and as always this Grumpy dwarf champ needs to be active or gets grumpier so was nice to follow in his footsteps through Tucky runs, a Great Barrow instance and even a Rivendell Iorbar’s Peak instance. Was so close to lv37 when fatherly and hubby duties where called for…

Must protect the egg!

This morning I remembered why I had taken Tsuchump to North Downs away from Evendim as I really do find it slow going and thats without the tedious swimming! Hillmen and Warg enmity race deeds still had to be done and as mobs still on level…(green!) could also get some class skill deeds done.

But upon arrival I found the whole hillmen area infested with pet classes (captains and lore-masters) they were soaking up all the hillmen… they left open a couple of patches…not even sure that was by design with which I was able to get half way through the 250 hillmen needed for hillmen enmity II. Normally is even quicker, today I used a 2xdeed and skill deed…

All was going great until I realized that my Swift to Anger deed was not moving, I did think it really odd that this deed among all my others was still open…so today I sent my first ticket to TURBINE…lets see if they can fix it OR am I doing something really stupid?

What is that yellow splat…? It doesn’t imbue confidence!

LOTRO: Mad Tsu and Familly

Madtsu is running through Ered Luin, started at lv16…and the advantages of being ‘on level’ (well ish) demonstrate themselves in the YELLOW champs ability to take out big crowds together…and on level can easily pick up a nice pack of cannon fodder by running by.

So first stop is to hop to house in Thorin’s Hall, grabbing dwarf exploration deed by simply running around Thorin’s Hall and using stable travel to get to Gondamon via all stops on the way…(See basic guide at bottom of post for more details)

Next Thrasi’s lodge and here I diverge from the normal Ered Luin TP run in that I decide to take out hendroval and dwarf bandits now. My mad champ does not let me down and soon slices his way through the 2 slayer deeds, (it felt like I spent longer trying to find a rabbit in a trap!)

So onward to the beginning, Celondim, simple quests and grey mobs… but by the Vineyard Gobs are green and queue up to be slaughtered:

 

And in Duillond the gobs are still green, only just and quickly fall to mad sword swipes:

 

Gordamon and time to complete wolf slaughter, there is a small wold den on top of the hill just outside the North gate (follow cliff to right and then head back along cliff top to find it… round them up and KILL!

That wolf bit through me!

Here is a You Tube vid of a champ with about a 70 mob pull!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2JFS9ffThU&feature=player_detailpage#t=459

And now for something completely different…

During my travels on Withy I take screenies of other Familly kin members I bump into:

2 kinnies serendiptious extreme!

CEBU always has an alt in the AH!

Taltoz shared 5 pages from the forgotten inn Journal of Captain Rabghul for 5tp and 20 meds which I needed for my last piece of armour 🙂

Taltoz helped with my mark and med problem by running Tsukuld through some BB’s…                   If u build it Tsu will use it!

Basically all I did while doing the BB’s, I thought I was doing ok until I realized that Taltoz was also killing stuff with a ballista! Really they should give a kill report at the end!

You have arrived at the BOTTOM!

As I stated above I would include the guide to Ered Luin I use for TP grinding…

Am in the process of optimizing as I still spend too long doing this run, over 2 hours!